How To Market Your Small Business Without Breaking The Bank

The ongoing pandemic has severely impacted small businesses. The bounce back to growth now requires even more preparation and better marketing. However, business owners need to carefully budget their expenses and operational costs to survive in the long term. This means curbing marketing activities.

But do you really need to break your bank for marketing activities? No, you do not. Here are five cost-effective yet straightforward marketing tips that will help your small business grow while driving sales and bringing in revenue.

1. Start A Blog

Starting a blog in lockdown is a great way to promote your business and everything that you offer. Start writing about value-driven topics that will help your business transform into a resource center for your customers and prospects. Consistently publishing high-quality content will establish your business as a thought leader and an authority in your niche.

If you already have a website, consider adding a blog section. Content marketing happens to be one of the most effective and cost-friendly marketing tactics for small businesses. Not only can you target more keywords and longtail phrases, but you can also improve your SEO rank and your business's brand value by writing about relevant topics.

Take feedback from your customers to understand what information they're looking for and are unable to find; address these topics in your blog. You can also list down tips, highlight the best practices in your niche, and write about industry-relevant news. Use tools like SEMrush and AnswerThePublic to see what questions people are asking about your industry. Google Keyword Planner is a great tool to search for keywords.

2. Publish Infographics and Videos

Publishing insightful infographics and well-thought-out videos are great ways to promote your business and showcase your expertise creatively. Creating generic infographics that pull information about your industry at large doubles up as an excellent resource for other websites who wish to use it as part of their content.

Any website that uses your infographics will credit you for the same with a link to your website or blog post. This will help your SEO efforts and drive traffic to your website. Ensure to include factually correct information that is visually appealing and intuitive.

Similarly, for your videos, be sure to include appealing graphics and subjects that effectively convey your message. Videos are a great way to grab people's attention and get your brand message across. In fact, video marketing happens to be one of the most effective ways to promote your business.

Canva is a great tool to create infographics, as is Lumen5, to create professional videos. Both of these tools are straightforward and easy to use. You won't need the help of a designer or video producer for this.

3. Product Giveaways

Whether you're selling a product or a service, giveaways are a relatively inexpensive and effective way to get the word out about your business. Everyone loves free samples and trials! So, why not give it to them? Think about it; it's cheaper to give away a product or a month-long free trial of your service rather than spend thousands of dollars on advertising on a billboard.

If your product or service wins them over, they're more likely to buy it from you and suggest it to their friends, family, and colleagues. Word of mouth still happens to be one of the most powerful marketing strategies; and doing giveaways will fuel that. This could lead people to share their free-trial experience on their social media accounts, helping you reach more people and to expand your popularity.

4. Run Contests

Another inexpensive and creative way to promote your business is to host an online contest. Get your customers, prospects, and followers on social media to participate. Give winners and participants promotional giveaways, free memberships, a discount, or social media mentions!

Running a contest is a smart way to introduce your business or a new product to potential customers. Create some hype around your contest by promoting it on your website and across your official social media accounts. Don't forget to announce the winner, along with what the winner gets!

5. Stay Active On Instagram

The best, most cost-friendly way to promote your business and reach new people is to be on Instagram. The visual social media platform boasts of over 500 million daily users, and by optimizing your posts, you can reach new people from your target audience every day.

Posting appealing pictures or simple videos of your product can do wonders for your brand and drive more engagement and followership. In fact, a whopping 72% of users purchase a product via Instagram.

Building your Instagram presence is relatively easy. Take a good picture of your product, write an enthralling caption, add relevant hashtags, and post it! You can also turn to post motivational or value-driven content like facts or tips to reach more people. Only posting content about your business may get overwhelming unless you're an eCommerce business offering a vast range of products.

And if you can make some room for budget, you can pay Instagram to run targeted ads with a link to your product page or Instagram profile that helps reach relevant people. Don't forget to include the link to your website in the bio section of your Instagram profile. Using new features like Reels, Stories, IGTV, and Live Stories can help your brand grow online.

Market Your Business Without Burning A Hole In Your Budgets

Effective marketing doesn't require millions of dollars. Identify low-cost marketing strategies that will have a more substantial, more lasting impact on your business. For instance, if you wish to build a strong online presence, using a clunky domain name for your website won’t help. However, pairing your exact match brand name with a new domain extension like .CYOU makes for a brandable choice.

Similarly, if you wish to reach younger audiences, be active on Instagram. Get creative with your posts, use custom hashtags, and build a dedicated brand style. Stick to your brand colors, so people instantly recognize your posts.

Likewise, if you want to reach more middle-aged and older audiences, be active on Facebook. Or you, if you have the knack of shooting engaging vides, having a YouTube channel around your brand or business is an effective and cost-friendly way to reach a global audience.

You never know; a budget-friendly marketing plan might exceed your expectations.

Eshan is a Senior Marketing Specialist at ShortDot, the registry behind some of the most successful new domain extensions, including .icu, .bond, and .cyou. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.